The serious damage caused by hard blows frequently occurs to athletes in various contact sports, such as hockey and football. Despite the frequency and severity of such accidents, most technological progress in recent years has been in the area of post injury protective devices and various surgical procedures. Protective padding designed to prevent such injury are generally inadequate under severe circumstances.
The inventor has previously described an athletic knee protector in U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,153, which overcomes many of the problems in the field. However, that device was designed primarily for the knee, and suffered from some inflexibility.
It is therefore a general object of the present invention to provide an improved protective pad.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a protective pad which is both rigid, yet flexible for various applications.
These and other objects will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.